1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is therapeutic back rests whereby a patient's back and full body is allowed to conform to a specified shape which renders therapeutic and relaxation benefits.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the background of the invention, various types of back rests and/or back exercising machines have been devised in order to provide mechanisms which bend the body or support a person's back. For example, Ryan in U.S. Pat. No. 3,006,643 devised a body exercising bench which consists of a centrally located standard with pivoting slant boards on either side of the standard whereby a person may lie on the device with their waist at the standard and their feet conformed to one of the slant boards and their chest to the other. Such a device as shown by Ryan allows for controlled bending at the waist only. The example given in the drawings of the patent to Ryan suggests that the device is used by a party lying face front down since the angles of the slant boards illustrated seem to suggest only use in that position inasmuch as utilizing the device with the slant boards other than substantially horizontal for face up positions would be practically prohibitive. In any event, if the device of Ryan were utilized with a person lying face upward on the device with the slant boards themselves flat, the person's back would, in conforming to that, would also lie flat.
Similarly, Kupchinski in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,378,259 illustrated a similar exercising cot where again the body is bent at the middle wherein two flat slant boards, or material covered cots, are pivotally attached at a central place. Thus again, a person's back is not arched in following the provided support.
Lastly, Pritchard, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,210,322, discloses a portable tumbling mat where a person is allowed to lie in a supine position on the mat and a rounded convex portion rises up to support the person's back while their back is arched over it. Such support for a person's back does permit the back to arch by its own weight, however, it does not support the back over its full region, nor does it define necessarily the angle which the back is arched. In addition, the back is not permitted to arch with no other forces on the back inasmuch as the device is so constructed that the person's feet reside on the ground and thereby have an influence on the arching of the back by taking a portion of the back's weight off of the rounded convex portion of the mat.
It is apparent that it would be useful to provide a mechanism which provides therapeutic value to a person's back by removing all extraneous forces which a person might add to their back by allowing the back to completely comform to a fixed shape unaffected by any forces other than the person's own weight.
It would also be an apparent advantage if the person's body in the areas connective to the back, namely the pelvis and the neck, are also allowed to continue in the form designed for the back inasmuch as there would not be an abrupt change of angle of the neck and the back or the pelvis and the back at their point of joinder.